Page 30 of Make Her Mine
“Huh?” I sat up, bleary-eyed and felt a sharp pain going through my head. “Ow.”
“Ella?” she called out again. “What’s wrong? It’s ten o’clock! Didn’t you hear the alarm go off on your cell?”
Moving slowly out of bed, I felt nauseous. “Mom, I’m not feeling well. I’ll be there in a bit.” I headed to the bathroom. “I’ve caught a bug or something. I might need to throw up.”
I heard the door handle wiggling. “Let me in, Ella.”
With not a stitch on, I looked around the room then saw a t-shirt tossed on the floor. Intending to pick it up and put it on, I leaned for it and got so dizzy that I fell over. “Ow.”
“Ella, what’s going on?” she asked. “Let me in!”
When I got up, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror over my dresser and saw makeup smeared all over my face. “Shit!”
“Ella?”
“Mom, I’m going to take a shower, then I’ll get to work, okay?” She can’t see me looking like that! She’d be made of questions if she saw the state I was in.
“Well, okay. Come find me once you get cleaned up and ready. I’ll be in my office doing payroll.” I heard her walk away and then slunk to the bathroom, still feeling hideous.
The hot water washed away all the makeup caked on my face; I cleaned my hair, and that made me feel a bit more alive. But I had Brandon to face, and that wasn’t good at all.
I put on sweatpants and a t-shirt to do the cleaning. I wasn’t up to doing much, but I had to try to do what I could. Before getting down to work though, I should find my purse.
Figuring I left it in the Corvette, I snuck out to the garage and saw it parked right where it belonged. The keys were in the lockbox on the wall, so I took them to unlock the car. But once inside, it wasn’t there.
That meant Brandon had most likely taken it into his bedroom. Why had he done that? It was eleven o’clock. He should be awake and most likely out of his room by now.
Heading up there to track down my things, I knocked nonchalantly on his door. “Brandon? Are you in there?”
Not hearing anything, I opened the door and went inside. The blanket he’d been laying under still lay on the floor; the bed was still a mess. Now that it was drenched in sunlight, I saw my boots on the floor by the dresser, and my purse was on top of it.
Grabbing my things, I turned to leave the room when the door opened. “Hey, you.”
My eyes closed as awkwardness made my entire body flush. “Hey.”
“You look better considering your state...” I didn’t turn around, but his voice was moving toward me.
“I still feel like hell.” Finally, I turned around to find him wearing only a towel around his waist. “Oh, God!” I closed my eyes. “Sorry! I just wanted to see if my things were here. I didn’t think you were even here! I’ll leave you alone so you can get dressed.”
“Really?” He chuckled as if I was being silly. “After what you did last night? You still feel uncomfortable with me?”
What was he talking about? I opened my eyes to look at him. “What happened last night?”
“What do you recall?” He walked over to his closet, then stepped inside and closed the door.
The thought of him dropping the towel and buck-naked looking for something to put on...
“Not a lot. I remember driving to the bar, getting out and going inside. Dyllan was there. I had a drink, and then, well, then I don’t know what else.”
“So youweredrunk after that first shot then. I suspected as much. You had a few more shots and a beer, too.”
He didn’t seem upset about the Corvette, but I had to know what he thought about me driving it home while I was drunk. “So, you’re not pissed about me taking the car?”
“I’m not thrilled,” he said then came out of the dressing room with jeans and a button-down shirt on, his feet were still bare, and they looked fine. Not many people had nice-looking feet, but Brandon did. “But you had no problem letting me drive it back here. You had no problems at all, Ella.”
Staggering back to the bed, I sat on it as my mind raced with what else I let him do. “You don’t mean we…”
He walked right up to me, put his hands on my shoulders as he looked me in the eyes and said, “Ella, you don’t remember a thing we did last night?”
